604 MR. G. W. BUTLER ON THE [ Dec. 3, 
The extent to which these fat-bodies project into the body-cavity 
varies, and that in a manner not merely dependent upon their size, 
but also, so to speak, upon the ease with which the peritoneum 
separates from the body-wall. In such a Lizard as Tupinambis 
teguexin I have seen the fat-bodies projecting forwards into the 
peritoneal cavity as two yellow lobes, as large as the liver-lobes ; and 
this may be seen usually to a lesser degree in the common Green 
Lizard and in others. On the other hand, in aspecimen of Gerrho- 
saurus fiavigularis examined, these fat-bodies extend forwards into 
two spaces ventral to the peritoneum, without any free bulge into 
the body-cavity. 
A series of transverse sections taken through an Amphisbena 
darwinii (cf. figs. 4-7), or a dissection of the animal, show that 
while anteriorly to the umbilical region the fat-bodies bulge into the 
body-cavity, in the more posterior region the peritoneum is simply 
displaced inwards. Thus we have here the two conditions above 
referred to displayed in different parts of the same animal; and this 
is true, in a less striking manner, of other Lizards (cf. figs. 11 & 12), 
in which the hinder portions of the fat-bodies are obviously quite 
outside the peritoneal cavity. 
The typical condition of these fat-bodies seems to be that of 
distinct lobed or festooned masses, suspended in distinct cavities * 
lined with smooth membrane, which are no part of the ordinary 
peritoneal cavity. 
It seems to me that to the extension of these cavities, which 
surround the fat-bodies, outside the peritoneum, so as to carry it 
away from the body-walls, we must attribute the peculiar state of 
things in Monitors, described by Beddard : (1) Proc. Zool. Soc. 1888, 
pp- 98-107 ; (2) Anatomischer Anzeiger, 1888, pp. 204-206. 
In the Monitors these two cavities communicate anteriorly, so 
as to form a single horseshoe-shaped cavity, with its free ends 
the alimentary canal into the substance of the fat-bodies, and regarding these 
and the liver simply as store-houses of combustible food-material, one is struck 
by the remarkable fore-and-aft symmetry displayed by the liver at one end of 
the trunk and the fat-bodies at the other, in their relations to the adjacent 
organs. And in this connection one is induced to comment upon the condition 
of the liver in Stphonops annulatus as described by Wiedersheim ‘ Die Anatomie 
der Gymnophionen,’ p. 74, fig. 82) :—‘ Die Leber stelt ein langes, bandartiges 
in zabJreiches Lappen zerfallendes Organ dar. Die einzelnen Lappen entstehen 
durch tiefe circulare Hinschnitte, liegen schollenartig aufgereiht unt meistens 
in dichter gegenseitiger Beriihrung.” ‘The “Lappen” are in Epicriwm “mehr 
gelblich gefarbt,” while in S. annulatus they possess “eine mehr graugriine 
Farbung.” 
Again, it may be worth while to note here the fate of the liver in Petromyzon 
(cf. Schneider, ‘ Beitrage z. verg. Anat. und Entwick. d. Wirbel., Berlin, 1879, 
pp. 93, 94); Rolleston (‘ Forms of Animal Life’) says, “‘ At the metamorphosis 
the tubular structure is lost; fat appears in the cells; the gall-bladder and bile- 
duct are absorbed.” 
It must be remembered, however, that (as described in this paper) the fat- 
bodies in some Reptiles project but slightly or not at all into the peritoneal 
cavity. 
é a may be sometimes, however, hard to trace distinct spaces round these 
odies. 
